Sever Totia Joins Edison Venture

Sever Totia has joined Edison Venture Fund as a principal, with a focus on software opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic region. He previously was a vice president with Lazard Technology Partners.

PRESS RELEASE

Edison Venture Fund welcomes Sever Totia as Principal. He will lead investments in software companies primarily located in Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC area. 

Prior to joining Edison, Sever Totia was a Vice President with Lazard Technology Partners, a $400M venture capital fund. Sever co-led LTP's enterprise software investment practice based in their Washington DC office. He worked closely with management and directors of Vocus (NASDAQ: VOCS), Managed Objects, Intellitactics, NFR Security (sold to Checkpoint), Aptsoft, Cyveillance and BoxTone.   NFR and Vocus were also successful Edison investments.

Before joining LTP in 2000, Sever was a senior Product Manager with the Equity Research Products division of Thomson Financial. Sever led teams responsible for software platform development, database architecture, content operations management, as well as implementation of systems for equity analyses and quantitative portfolio modeling.

“Sever Totia is a well established VC and will contribute to Edison's track record in our Virginia office,” stated John Martinson, Edison Managing Partner. “His operating and venture experience are well-suited to find, back and build expansion stage companies,” continued Gary Golding, Edison General Partner. Sever will initially take responsibility for several Edison portfolio companies. In parallel, he will also lead the investment process for emerging growth software and business services companies.

Sever Totia earned a BS in Finance from Virginia Tech. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst. Sever serves on the Executive Committee of YAVA, the investment professional division of the Mid Atlantic Venture Association. 

Based in Edison's McLean, VA office, Sever may be contacted at stotia@edisonventure.com, 703-584-3261, Edison Venture Fund, 8405 Greensboro Dr., Suite 210, McLean, VA 22102.

Edison has invested in 12 Maryland-based companies and invested in 17 Virginia companies.   Additional successful exits include Axent, Best Software, BTG, International Telesystems, POMS, Skills Bank and Visual Networks. Active investments include Corasworks, Fishbowl Marketing, Innovectra, Liberty Tax, LogicTree and Telarix.

About Edison Venture Fund

Established in 1986, Edison partners with entrepreneurs, service providers and financing sources to build successful companies. Edison provides capital and value-added services to expansion stage ($5 to 20 million revenue), information technology businesses. Initial investments range from $5 to 8 million. Edison typically serves as a sole or lead investor in financings up to $10 million. In addition to providing growth capital, Edison funds management buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts and secondary stock purchases.